300.000 miles: How to prevent excessive oil consumption?

I like these hypothetical questions. However, the elephant in the room is,
who wants to drive a 20 year old vehicle because that’s how long it will take most people to rack up 300,000 miles. There is a gauntlet of traffic accidents, car thieves and rust to get by, and that’s if no one steals your cat and the insurance company writes it off. If you bought the vehicle today, you would still be driving it in 2043, a time when some jurisdictions say you cannot even buy a new ICE vehicle.
 
380k mi on my 1uz. Uses a quart of oil between changes, & less if I keep my foot out of it. It has a few leaks, highly possible it burns oil too. But 1qt every 5k mi isn't worth my time solving. I put more thought in to scooping ice cream in to a bowl vs eating right out of the carton.

Mobil 1 5w30 & Toyota filter. When it was my brother's car, he used Mobil 1 & Fram filter.
 
How to?

Engine design and operating environment have a lot to do with consumption. Some engines will consume more oil than others regardless.

Suggestions for reducing the amount of potential consumption

1 Properly sized air filter - Dirt will score cylinder walls.
2 Consistent oil changes.
3 Drive at moderate speeds until the engine has reached operating temperature.

Autobahn speeds will result in higher oil consumption. You could always go up a grade to try to reduce it.

In any case as the engine ages certain items will cause an increase in oil consumption like hardening of valve stem seals and a loss of compression around the pistons.
 
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I know 300,000 is a milestone however I feel if you can get 25 years out of a vehicle and 175,000 or more miles you are getting a great value and it takes a little luck to get there. In order to make it to 300,000 or more I would change the oil every 5,000 miles and I am pretty sure most brands with a history of reliability will make it there. Buying the correct vehicle with a good history is more important than anything. My vehicles don't burn oil and I change my oil every 5,000 miles or less. My mom's old 99 Buick that I sold this summer still ran great but had only 90,000 miles and the only thing that was replaced was a water pump. Those 3.8's easily make it to 300,000 with regular oil changes. You have to buy the right vehicle to start with as far as going lots of trouble free miles.
 

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STP oil treatment was MADE for this.
Will help along with good maintence (air filter, pvc, thermonstat)
 
STP oil treatment was MADE for this.
Will help along with good maintence (air filter, pvc, thermonstat)
A fully-formulated oil that meets the engine’s requirements doesn’t need any gimmickry, just good filtration and sensibly-timed fluid exchanges.

What exactly leads you to believe STP was “made” for this, and what’s it got specifically that a fully-formulated oil doesn’t?
 
Some cars always consume oil and some consume a lot. In Toyota land, Corolla 1998-2002 1.8L, Camry, RAV4, XRS 2.4L 2007-2009, Prius 2010-2014, pre-2006 1.6L, 1.3L (Europe) Corolla are oil burner caused by low piston rings design. The remedy was revised piston and piston rings on the following years and for instance, the 2015 Prius do not consume oil at all even after 150k miles or more. I have Sienna 2004 3.3L V6, no oil consumption within 5k miles OCI even at 200k+ miles. My Nissan Altima consumes oil 1L per 800 miles since 50k miles. So, if we get a right good engine, and do 5k miles/6 months OCI, we can avoid oil consumption entirely even after 200k+ miles. Probably 300k+ miles too but my cars have not reached that mile yet.
 
I like these hypothetical questions. However, the elephant in the room is,
who wants to drive a 20 year old vehicle because that’s how long it will take most people to rack up 300,000 miles. There is a gauntlet of traffic accidents, car thieves and rust to get by, and that’s if no one steals your cat and the insurance company writes it off. If you bought the vehicle today, you would still be driving it in 2043, a time when some jurisdictions say you cannot even buy a new ICE vehicle.
Well - I do.

My 2002 Explorer is at about 250000 now, and till it falls apart beyond any reasonable repair, I see no reason why I would burn money on an other daily driver - why should I? I'm looking forward to drive it for at least an other 5 years, if not more.

By the way, my other cars are 75 and 81 years old.

Frank
 
It is possible with 4 requirements:
1. A good engine
2. a good quality Oil and filter,
3. Reasonable Oil Change interval 5k miles/6 months
4. Ideal driving conditions. No towing, climbing mountains, racing, excessive idling and traffic .
 
300k miles is about 483Mm. Less than half a million Kilometres! Nothing to worry about. :)

If you want to prevent oil consumption, it may help to understand how and where it could happen.
1) worn piston rings
2) stuck piston rings
3) worn cylinders (out of round, bore polishing etc)
4) valve guides
5) turbocharger bearings
6) bad design (for example a particularly bad combination of PVC system and low tension rings, like in Saab's B205/B235).

Issues 1->3 can be addressed by using proper oils at appropriate intervals, and by using the engine car sensibly. Avoid short tripping, drive gently until engine has reached operating temperature, use the whole rev band from time to time, vary load (rev her when merging onramps, use engine breaking...)
4) will happen eventually - just get them done when it happens.
5) will happen eventually, but can be postponed by hundreds of thousands of kilometres by treating your turbo nicely: synthetic oils only, cool down before shutting the engine off (if you've driven fast or with high load, i.e. used boost and have high exhaust temperatures, drive gently for a few km, and always idle for at least 30 seconds before shutting off).
Fix for 6): Don't buy such a car.

Bonus tip regarding engine longevity (though not related to oil consumption): change coolant regularly. Coolant is not only anti-freeze, but also acts as an anti-coroosive. If there are several different metals used within the coolant circuit (think iron engine block, aluminium head, copper cooler or piping) galvanic corrosion quickly rears it's ugly head. I am also under the impression that frequent coolant changes greatly reduce the frequency of head gasket failures (and failed headgaskets, besides being costly to exchange, can also damage the lower end, as antifreeze and oil dont like each other. Coolant in the oil will kill crank and piston rod bearings quickly).
 
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